OT Re: Margaret Talbot’s New Yorker piece “neuroenhancement”
Is it just me or is this article an indication of some weak journalism allowed to make it to press at TNY because of the topical nature of drug use?
Talbot is just documenting what has been an age old tradition on college campuses, professional offices, and in the Dr's office. Stamping the practice as "cosmetic neurology" is meaningless, at least from where I stand, as the practice is not promulgated by neurologists so much as psychiatrists and primary care physicians. The use of adderall/methylphenidate vs. amphetamine in the past is simply a move to what's most readily available. Adding provigil simply demonstrates that people desperate enough to use an "edge" will try whatever is available to them (I can guarentee that abuse of provigil is very low vs. the stimulants.) Talbot's assertion that the next generation of drugs to enter the manipulated use arena, those being the Alzheimer's drugs, is simply ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. Aricept has absolutely NO short-term efficacy with regard to cognitive efficiency and the college kids already know this after raiding grandma's stock and finding nothing there to help them.
aj
